Related Support Offices

The Arts

The Arts Standards reflect the innate creativity and rigorous cognition, required to produce a work of art, all students deserve to experience. The standards challenge the elitist perception sometimes associated with the arts, asking all students to stretch their thinking and participate in the creative process inherent in each arts discipline (Know/Comprehend, Create, Perform/Present, and Refine/Critique).

Important Announcements

New TIGER Music Grant Now Available

The Technology, Instruments, Guest, Experiences, and Resources (TIGER) Music Grant is now available. This new opportunity is made possible through a generous donation from Face Vocal Band. Some members of the group have been educators themselves or had music education experiences that were vital to them as students, thus, they wanted to show their appreciation for hard working music educators in the state. They know that it is often difficult for music programs to purchase items such as sheet music, risers and the basics for music instruction, so they earmarked concert proceeds to offer small grants to music programs to offset these costs.

School districts (on behalf of schools and charters schools), the Charter School Institute (CSI) and non-public schools are eligible to apply for this opportunity. Approximately $30,000 will be available for approximately 15 – 30 grants. Note: A maximum of $3,000 will be awarded to districts applying for multiple schools and a maximum of $2,000 will be awarded to districts applying for a single school.

A program information webinar will be held on Monday, October 2, 2017 at 11:00 am. Register for this technical assistance via Eventbrite at https://tigergrant2017.eventbrite.com. A recording will also be posted below after the live webinar for educators who cannot attend in person due to teaching commitments. If interested in applying for this funding opportunity, please submit the Letter of Intent by Friday, October 13, 2017 via SurveyMonkey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TIGERgrant2017_LOI.

To apply please submit a complete cover sheet and assurances page, application pages (including answers to questions for the application narrative) and the budget sheet (incomplete applications will not be considered). These submissions must be received no later than 11:59pm on the due date above to the competitive grants email above.

State law requires a review and revision of the Colorado Academic Standards every six years, with the first review to be completed by July 2018. CDE is currently developing a plan to guide the upcoming standards review and revision process, and the department is actively seeking input from all interested parties to inform its planning process. Be sure to stay informed about the arts committee work and share your feedback!

In response to requests by educators and evaluators, CDE initiated the development of a set of guides written by practitioners for practitioners. They are intended to provide informal advice to teachers and their evaluators to help them understand the evaluation process within their specific context. In addition, these guides include specific practices to “look-for” to guide their classroom observations and help ensure that all licensed teachers receive fair, valid and reliable evaluations.

Colorado teacher-authored instructional units are on our website. Hundreds of teachers from 116 school districts participated in workshops for the creation of Colorado Academic Standards-based curriculum overviews and instructional units.

If you are new to Colorado or are just interested in learning about the overarching headlines regarding arts education, this one page reference sheet is a good place to begin! Use the navigation links on the right side to read even more about the exciting world of arts education in Colorado!

Relevant Legislation

This statute encourages all public schools to provide courses in performing and visual arts. Courses may include traditional arts classes, on-line study, internships, externships, mentor experiences, or independent study. Schools are encouraged to use innovative ways to deliver arts education, such as technology, software, and forming partnerships with other school districts, or community colleges. The statute also provides definitions for visual and performing arts in Colorado.